The Perfexion™ Gamma Knife At
San Antonio Community Hospital

The Perfexion™ Gamma Knife is a revolutionary way of conducting noninvasive brain surgery. Neurosurgeons and radiation oncologists use the Gamma Knife radiosurgery system to precisely target and eradicate abnormal tissue in the brain. It can be used to treat certain benign and malignant brain tumors, vascular malformations, and other brain disorders such as trigeminal neuralgia and Parkinson's disease.

How It Works

Gamma Knife radiosurgery is performed as an outpatient procedure, usually in a single session lasting anywhere from 20 minutes to three hours. The patient remains awake throughout, with only a mild sedative and very little discomfort (mostly associated with the brace used to keep the head stationary.) After the procedure, patients typically rest at home for a day or two, and then resume normal activities.

The Gamma Knife uses 192 low-dose radiation beams to kill cancer cells. None of these beams is powerful enough to do any damage on its own, so each passes through healthy brain tissue without incident. When several beams intersect, however, their intensity is multiplied, and doctors can arrange those intersections so they occur only in places where cancer exists. High doses are thus "sculpted" to precise shapes within the brain, disrupting the DNA of the cancer cells and preventing their reproduction.